Bill Boy, Rest in Peace February 25, 2010

Over 3 weeks ago I started feeding Bill raw grass-fed meats. His favorite was pork chops. His next favorite nummy was mayonaisse. He was also fond of raw chicken and roasted beefs. The power of these favorite things gave him 25 more days with us. He was a cat with no time to lose, so the time was always now.

He was eating less than before which was a bit overwhelming at times since he ate 12-15 times a day depending how late I was working; really, really. By the end he was only eating 4-5 times a day and when he asked for food I immediate dropped everything and gave it to him.

He like a bit of attention but unlike his predecessor Buster (whom he looked like) Bill did not like to cuddle. As he was on the first days we lived together, he was yesterday. He kept trying to hide. This was the hardest for me.

I prayed that his passing would be peaceful. I know that this is possible in a cat since I saw my dear Rocky give up the life force with a sigh. It was an amazing moment we shared. It was not as such with Bill, but I tried to respect his wishes, and still make him as comfortable as possible.

I do not believe in euthanasia. It is not going to sleep and in fact the struggle lasts much longer. Unless there is pain. I don't think I could stand to watch any living thing be in pain. Death is not usually painful. It is confusing for animals only because they don't know about death. So it is confusing and that is when their connection to us helps. We can comfort them if they let us. I could not comfort Bill, but to talk to him and act like everything was ok.

The only time he cried out was when he was trying to walk. He made huge efforts and succeed moving many times. The will to live is a powerful force and it gives us as much time as nature will allow, but at the end it is best to find a way to release. We will know when our time comes and hopefully we will find a way to not be afraid.

Good-bye sweet Bill. You will live in
my heart forever.

Never underestimate the Will to Live

written January 31, 2010

My boy Bill is such an amazing cat. He came into our lives when a neighbor kept telling me about this black and white cat living near the train tracks outside near our apartment building in Manhattan. Early life was not easy for dear Bill. Someone cruelly threw him out into the mean streets and he survived there for over two years.

And then we met.

And he looked just like my dearly departed Buster and my heart melted. It took him almost a month to stop hiding from us. I kept him in our studio, isolated from other cats until we were sure that he was disease free. By the time he started to come out I realized he had ringworm. Poor fellow. So I donned a hazmat suit (crazy koot in a paper suit) and gave him his medicine and soothed his wounds with Rescue Remedy cream and within another few months he was given a clean bill of health!

The first time I tried to bring him home and into a household of four other cats it was a disaster. Prior to this experience I truly believed given enough time cats would always learn to get along with each other. But I learned the hard way that cats really don't like to be kept inside in groups of more than three.

After the second attempt (another disaster) I came to discover that Bill had been terrorized by other cats while he was living on the street. He was terrified and although he was the only one doing the attacking now, I had to once again isolate him in our studio.

He lived alone and happily in our little Manhattan studio for another 7 years. In 2005 I started to notice he held his head in an odd way and was unstable. I had a great vet in Manhattan, a real animal lover and we could not find an infection, believing it was probably some kind of brain tumor. Bill was already about 12 years old, so I knew I would not put him through neurosurgery and any of its aftermath. I started to give him such a life that his will to live would give him a fighting chance.

In 2006 he started to show signs of what I found out in 2007 was advanced kidney disease. We also got a diagnosis of cancer on top of everything else in November 2007. So I took my dear friend home and now that I knew that his time was coming I started to give him anything and everything he wanted!

In late 2007 we move to our new studio and Bill was forced to live with Rosie and BB. I think this new challenge actually gave Bill a new lease on life. He has over 4000 sq feet of indoor space and another 5000 sq feet of private roof space to bask in the sun and eat grasses and catnip in season.

I have known he was sick now for over 5 years and for the past two I knew I would never take him to a vet again as long as he was not suffering. Pain may be inevitable but the suffering is without a doubt optional. He has shown an amazing quality of life and since I feed him whenever he wants food, he has been getting meals every hour. He really knows how to milk me for every drop!

I noticed on this past Monday that he was having some troubles jumping up. I also noticed that he wasn't asking for as much food; still 6-8 times a day but down from his usual 10-14 meals. No exaggeration! On Thursday I noticed that his back feet, both of them were swollen but he wasn't in any pain. He ate more on Friday but on Saturday I noticed that one of his front paws was also now swollen. This edema, a new symptom, shows me that his heart is starting to fail but nothing that can be done won't kill him since the medicines for the edema would most likely cause total kidney failure at this point.

Last night he didn't come to sleep with us, and although he was eating, I began to prepare myself for an end that was coming soon. I had a hard time falling asleep but I promised to keep up my spirits while he was still alive and then I noticed that he was crawling into bed between us, where he stayed until the morning. And I fell blissfully asleep.

He may have just days, or weeks, or maybe months. I will not underestimate this cat. He has a life that he loves and he is enjoying it. He is not in any pain or even discomfort. And from now on he will be pampered with every comfort and sweetness, special meals and lots of loving.

Dear Bill, you ain't dead yet!

Read all of the entries HERE

I was fascinated by Andrea Chalupa's interview with her father, neurobiologist Leo Chalupa, whose dangerous idea was 24 Hours of Solitude:

Back in 1997, I did a 10 day silent meditation retreat, to learn Vipassana meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka. No one that knew me thought I could last 10 minutes let alone 10 days without talking. I didn't watch TV for 10 years (missed most of the 70s television shows) so I know that I can disengage from media. But in 1997 I had only been working with computers for about 3 years. Today I am on computers (I have at least 2 working at all times, and personally have 4 workstations in my own office) at least 14 hours a day. But at University I studied brain science, neuropharmacology and neuropsychology. I have a B.S. in behavioral psychology and went on to apprentice as a advertising photographer.

So I am fascinated by the idea of the effect that 24 hours of solitude would have on the brain!

photo © Kat Caverly 2009

Bill is 15-17 years old we think; no younger. He lived outside our apartment building in
Hell's Kitchen Manhattan for a couple of years. Those were tough years for Bill. I had so
many cats that Tom announced that if I brought even just one more home with me one of
the cats was going to go and that Kat would be ME! That was ok until I actually met Bill.

Bill looks just like my dear Buster, except Bill has a good attitude! You can't tell from the
portrait above. Bill is very camera shy; unlike Buster. Though if the truth be know Buster
did not like being photographed! Cats just mostly do not like to wear clothes!

Back to Bill. I brought him in to our studio in 1998. He was already full-grown and had
been since he was spotted outside near the train tracks. I'd say he was already 3-4 years
old in 1998. Yes I think he is 15 years old now.

Bill did not like other cats. I mean, he really hated them and would not tolerate another
cat in his space. So he lived as the only cat in our studio until 2007. In August 2007
he was reunited with our other cats and moved to our new studio. Everyone suffered but Bill
showed the wear and tear.

Bill was handed two death sentences in October 2007; stage 3 kidney disease and cancer.
He was given only a few months to live even with aggressive treatments. We opted
to not continue the treatments and give him a wonderful time with whatever time he
has left and that was almost two years ago!

He looks better than ever now but there is no doubt that Bill is an old cat and he is now
living the good life. He shares 4200 sq feet with two other cats who pay him very little
attention and defer to his greatness. He has 2 humans to wait on him hand and foot.
He eats whenever he wants to, which is 7-9 times a day and he gets table scraps and
treats regularly every day.

Never underestimate the power of Will to Live!

photo © Kat Caverly 2009

Tom has been shooting still lifes working in our natural light studio And this afternoon at sunset the light broke through and made magic...before "magic hour".

Side Note: Magic Hour is a movie term for that hour after the sun goes below the horizon; dusk. It is a very warm light and was directional from the side. A few choice clouds moved in at just the right moment and everything went soft.

Tom added a fill card and I shot at 4000ºK and 6000ºK. With some masking and sharpening and burning and increasing contrast selectively; viola!

photo © Kat Caverly 2009

Rosie is my "circus kitty" so all I had to do was place her on the stool and turn on the lights!

I decided to warm up the "film" and shot at 5000ºK using 5500ºK flashtubes. This is classic beauty lighting. This piebald feline is a classic beauty. I am shooting with a Nikkor 105mm micro lense which is a beautiful piece of optics. it is perfect for portraits of small subjects.

photos © Kat Caverly 2009

There are fashion models of all species and you just know them when you see them! And in high fashion fashion these models were demanding and emotional. But just feed them their favorite nummies and they will share with you their very beautiful souls...for a brief moment.

Beautiful.

photo©Kat Caverly 2009

Tom has started to shoot Papercams again and it is so very exciting.

For this shoot, Tom is shooting with a Mole 2K with strategically placed gobos and reflectors. I decided to shoot the process because it is just fascinating. For my shoot, I am using a Nikon D700 and decided to warm up the tungsten light a wee bit by shooting at 4000ºK, The result is a nice warmth on the skull while maintaining the cold metal of the chain.

I am shooting at ISO 1000 while the Papercams have an effective speed around ISO 2; yes TWO!! So his exposure time for his first test was 30 minutes; the time of this particular hourglass! And he wants 1-1.5 stops more in his final exposure!! More to come. Take a look over at Papercams to see how he does it.

photo©Kat Caverly 2009

Years ago we tried to batik some Easter Eggs not realizing that using rubber cement would
make the eggs inedible. But they were wonderfully unique looking.

Tom decided that we should "blow" out the eggs and in fact this would give us permanent
Easter Eggs!! Love it.

Tom, of course, had all of the tools and tried a series of techniques as he discovered what
would make the smallest hole but still allow the insides to be cleaned out. No more hard
boiling; no more need to destroy the works of art.

First we did a base dye job; pink, green, blue, yellow, orange. It amazes me that colors
can have such a profound emotional impact! Then using rubber cement we masked the
eggs for the next dip. What fun!

We got the usual PAAS and Heinz white vinegar but Tom also saw a new twist; a gel like,
ink flowing - transparent water color like dye that dried to a gloss finish! I had
so much fun.

And I can now add these to my permanent collection. HAPPY EASTER

photo © Kat Caverly 2009

A month in the making, the set of my latest portrait is a tribute to my husband and partner, Thomas Hudson Reeve. Besides bringing Archimedes to life, Tom built the set and did the special effects, and was my lighting assistant.

Using Barbarino's print as our inspiration, our goal was to capture the deep thought of the great Archimedes, as well as the dramatic lighting and feeling of space and place.

Starting with an overall super-soft fill of only f4 (8 foot Octodome behind me), we built the lighting. The main light is a Speedotron beauty dish with a 20 degree honeycomb grid set to f16. The background light is flagged to throw a window shape, f22. Finally we bounced a softened 102 head off a show card as a fill for the foreground, f8. Exposure was set at f18 at 1/15th of a second (for the fire in the torche).

I am using a Nikon D700, white balance set for 5700ºK, post processed in Photoshop CS4.

I did the character styling; wardrobe, make-up and hair. Tom was the decorator and did the shopping for all of the props including a magnificent chair. He has was the prop master and custom built the fire effect for the torche.

The results are very exciting! We make a great team and with all of the skills and experience Tom has with stage craft and photography, I have a team equal to many many professionals all wrapped up into a dynamic duo!

photo © Kat Caverly 2008

We had the whitest of Christmases and the snow was magical. You could actually see individual SNOWFLAKES in the drifts!

The image above is a micro photograph of a miniature ornament on a live baby pine tree. The tree was naturally flocked by our second snowstorm 2 days later. Again there was the magic of a snow light enough that you could see individual snowflakes with the naked eye. That made last minute Christmas shopping even merrier and bright!

We decorated the BIG TREE on Christmas Eve. Unwrapping each of the ornaments in my collection is like opening endless presents. It takes about 4 man-hours, or maybe a bit longer. I take the opportunity t really look at and feel each of my prizes. And this year we spent a day lighting and doing a beauty photo of this tree.

View Photo Larger

I never thought about how hard it is to photograph a Christmas Tree and capture its personality and how it looks to the mind's eye, how the tree feels to my heart as much as it looks to my eyes.

Next, how do we capture the start of a new year?

Click the photo to see our holiday e-card!

We have been working since October on our holiday e-greeting for 2008. Tom wrote the script and we called upon the character designers and the animator who helped us bring these characters to life.

I am the voice of Sweetdream and Tom voiced Nightmare in this Christmas tale. And working with composer/arranger Rob Morrison, I produced the soundtrack. It will be released as an online greeting just in time for this season. And today we shot out holiday family portrait. As you can see we really are Santa's elves!!

Special thanks to Gloria Caballe and Chris Leap who created these characters, and Carl Sowerby who brought them to life with his delightful animations. This is a very special holiday gift to me, and my perrsoanl favorite Christmas design of all times.

Click HERE to see Sweetdream or Nightmare Christmas

KAT CAVERLY, photographer

The studio is ready; check! Have MINI, will travel, check! We are ready for location shoots! And for the last two weeks I have been preparing the new website!

After much deliberation and remembering the advice that Victor Skrebneski gave me while I was working in Chicago, "only show your best work". I think this is excellent advice and so far I have only included 6 photos and one is from my last project. I must admit that I am doing my best work ever now!

Thomas Hudson Reeve photographed by Kat Caverly

Looking beautiful is all about the lighting. Looking ugly is all about the lighting too. BEing funny as Tom shows us in the test above, well is all about personality!

When we have a choice we choose beauty lighting. And now we can bring the studio with us on location with the right equipment (and the right assistant).

I worked on the specifics of the equipment and the lighting ratio for a couple of weeks and then discovered Lastolite! lastolite has come out with the HiLite which is a softbox that can be used as a background making a High Key beauty lighting a bit easier and totally portable. The 6'x7' version folds down to a 40" circle. WOW. It takes a bit to master the folding back up but thanks to the brilliance of my esteemed colleague Thomas Hudson Reeve, he was able to get it done in under 3 attempts with just a bit of practice.

The key here (excuse the pun) is SOFT. I chose a extra large softbox 48"x72" for the fill light and after much testing I chose a Speedotron beauty dish shooting through an ultra white umbrella (for the shape on the eyes) for the Key light. the key to the Key is soft soft soft.

The HiLite serves as the background in this scenario and gives an fabulous cleanliness to the whole look and I only needed 48" between the background and the model. Overall I just needed 20 feet of space to setup and get a studio look while shooting outdoors!

View Beauty Shot

Special thanks to international make-up artist Susan Sterling who achieved that perfect young, fresh and beautiful make-up, and I couldn't do any of this with grace without Tom Reeve.

Location shoots! Such excitement. I have to admit that things have gotten so much better in the last 30 years. Strobes are faster and smaller. Softboxes have gotten quite creative and truly portable. I just got my 6x7foot HiLite from Lastolite and I am so enamored. Fabulous!

And in this age of eBay it is easy and cheap to get a full lighting kit. But it all had to fit in the boot of my MINI!! I am hoping to add a faster, lighter power pack before the end of the week but I am ready now. I have a vintage Speedotron 2400ws pack with an old anvil case. Really brings me back!

©Kat Caverly and Thomas Hudson Reeve

I was told that I would have to get a car but until yesterday I had only driven our Honda once since we moved upstate. I thought I really did not like to drive and I was not looking forward to picking up my new car, especially since I would have to drive 70 miles to get her home.

But to my surprise I LOVE driving my MINI Cooper, really really alot of fun! So after I got home I created a special music CD, MINI1 and Tom and I went on another road trip, starting with just figuring out how the radio/cd player works!!

She is the cutest thing. She looks like you could pop her in your mouth and that she'd be sweet! This is my first new car since I was 17 years old (a '72 Mustang) and yesterday I drove more than I had in the last 30 years combined!!

This is happiness!